A Learning Experience
by ashestoashesanddusttodust
Summary: Catwoman has a new partner and Robin's been looking forward to finding out more about him. JayTim


**Stray Cat Strut  
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**A Word**: Had a request for Robin flirting up Stray and getting scratched for it. Which does nothing to deter Jason Todd at all.

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Jason's been looking forward to this since B confirmed the rumors that Catwoman has her own sidekick now. He slips away as B does his fighting-flirting Bat dance with Selina. Neither notices as they continue to all but climb each other on the roof. It's kind of a relief to have an excuse not to have to watch them do this. It was interesting the first time, but then it got awkward.

Jason drops into the penthouse they chased Catwoman out of earlier and is not the least bit surprised at the small figure picking through the open safe. "Hey."

The boy -Kitten, Catboy, Catlad, he's not sure which of the names used on the street the kid goes by- reacts textbook perfectly. The glittering necklace he's holding disappears -and not back into the safe- and he's up on his feet facing Jason in a matter of seconds. Wide eyes blink rapidly behind the same yellow lenses and full head cowl that Selina prefers, the lenses are large enough that Jason can see the boy's eyebrows furrow with his frown as he shoots a look at the open window behind Jason.

"They're doing that thing they do up on the roof," Jason waves lazily back and up as he moves into the room. Super casual as he makes sure to block off that exit and the other two he's identified as he gets closer to observe the new kid. "It'll be a while. I don't know about you but I don't want to have to watch any of that. You haven't been with Catwoman long enough, but they can get pretty," Jason chews a few words over before shrugging, "pornographic."

The kid makes a choked off sound, but it's a smile that he's biting back when Jason looks. "Trust me, Robin, I am well aware how those two can get."

The voice is light, the tone wry, and Jason smiles as he takes another step closer. "Yeah? Well, thought I'd check just to be sure you didn't walk in on anything that'd scar you," Jason files the information away for later. B would like to know that the kid's been around longer than he thought originally. "So, you got a name?"

Jason's close enough to get more detail, and he ups the age on the kid. He'd taken the boy's small stature as an indication of his youth, but this close he can see the lack of youth in his face. There's not as much roundness in it, and he's pretty sure there's an adams apple under the high neck of his leather suit. Something close to Selina's curvy catsuit, but fitted to what Jason's now seeing is a surprising bit of muscle.

"I prefer Stray," the boy says as he straightens up fully and crosses his arms over his chest. Stray cocks his head and raises one eyebrow, all trace of the slight nervousness gone now. He's got that cocky swagger that Selina gets when she's confronted, and Jason grins at it. "And I'm perfectly capable of _looking away_ from any rooftop shenanigans."

Shenanigans, heh. Stray puts the kind of disdained spin on that one word that Alfred puts in his own words when he Does Not Approve of something. Jason feels his grin stretch even wider. He likes Stray, and he's getting the feeling -with every word they exchange- that he's going to _really_ like him in a short amount of time. "Hey, don't knock it. They might not be so much fun to watch," Jason swaggers forward until he's in Stray's space. The boy goes tense, but his eyes stay cool and locked on Jason. He twitches a little when Jason dares to reach out for his left arm. It's slim but solid muscle when Jason squeezes a little, and modulates his grin to something that tends to make people go a little pink in the face when he aims it at them. "But it's actually the height of romance in Gotham. I can show you, if you want?"

Stray stops blinking, and sort of just stares. It's kind of a creepy scare and Jason worries a bit that he's broken the new cat before the boy shakes himself and he frowns again. "What?"

The tone on that is flat and disbelieving. It almost stings a bit, but Jason just keeps smiling. He's still working out how people seem to segue smoothly into pick up lines. Bruce is an expert at it when it doesn't matter, and Dick doesn't do too bad on his own either. Jason sort of just opens his mouth and it plops right out. Awkward and strange as hell, but he's found that if he keeps pushing forward -instead of running away to hide like he wants to- he can usually recover well enough.

Jason lets go of Stray's arm and skims his hand upward. Pressing just hard enough to be felt through the material and bit of armor he finds. "I'm asking if you'd like to get away from this crime scene and talk a little more, away from the mentors, cutie."

There's a bit of pink spilling down from under the line of the cowl that only leaves Stray's lower face free. Jason traces the edge of the cowl with his thumb adn Stray seems to stop breathing. Jason really wants to pull that cowl back and get a good look at his face, but that's something for the fourth date.

"You-" Stray jerks back a little but he can't really go very far without tripping over the remains of the security system one of them dismantled and left in a messy pile on the floor. He almost does trip actually, but his balance is great and he recovers before Jason can get a hand around his lower back to steady him. Jason does it anyway and gets a _wonderful_ pissy look for it. "What are you _doing_?"

"Trying to ask a cute little kitten out on a date," Jason grins as he steps back and pulls Stray with him. Getting them both out of the tripping hazard's range. He gets his other hand back up and on Stray's face, itching to take the gauntlet off. "If you want, I could slap some cuffs on you and escort you to jail a couple times instead. I mean it's worked for Batman and Catwoman, but I was kinda hoping I could do this without all the incarceration and viol-"

Stray _hisses_ and Jason's got four lines of fire running down his face before he can even figure out the boy's twisting away from him. "Fuck! Wait!"

Stray's gone in a split second. Moving fast, and that shouldn't surprise Jason as much as it does. Jason doesn't bother giving chase past the window when he looks out and can't find any trace of the cat-burglar. He sighs and steps back to look at a nearby mirror. The scratches are faint, barely there raised welts from the claws he'd seen on Stray's gloves and ignored. They sting a bit but the skin isn't broken at least.

"You have a lot to learn, kiddo," Selina oozes through the window and sounds every bit like the cat that got the canary, the cream, and the couple thousand dollar diamond encrusted necklace.

"Your kid's kinda flighty," Jason says with a grin when he turns to see her lounging in the window. Mostly out of it, and giving the impression she's only paused for the moment. "Cute, but easy to spook."

"Oh, you just have no idea," Selina smirks and nearly purrs as she shifts. Muscles bunching in preparation for running. "I'll catch up to my kitten and see if I can smooth his fur back down. You, need to see about coming up with some better moves."

Selina's gone just as fast as Stray, and Jason swings out of the window. Going up to the roof where B's sulking. The way he always does when an encounter with Catwoman doesn't go how he'd planned. Jason can _feel_ the black glare that hits the marked side of his face when he climbs up. "Really."

"Shut up. You have zero right to say _anything_," and B stays quiet because, for once, Jason's right. "The kid is cute as hell, B."

"And friendly," Bruce says, dry like Alfred when he's pointing out obvious flaws in plans.

"Yeah," Jason flicks the heavy cape away to expose the shredded left side of Batman's armor that's going to be replaced before they can continue patrol. "Just like his mama."

Bruce doesn't sigh, but Jason can hear it anyway in the silent five seconds the older man just stands there. Probably looking out into the distance and wondering why his life is the way it is. Jason lets him have that moment and stretches a bit, because if he knows B-

Batman launches himself off the roof and into the night with an amount of violence that really isn't needed. Jason takes off after him, determined to try and keep up as B burns off his frustration. The wind makes his cheek sting a bit more though, and Jason's grinning as he chases after Batman. Already looking forward to the next time he gets to meet Gotham's newest cat-burglar.

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End file.
